Lady Cardinals cruise into finals with rout of Bengals

The Case Cardinals continued their quest for a third straight state title appearance by putting up five runs in the fourth and sixth innings en route to a 14-0 Division 3 South semifinal softball victory over Diman on Tuesday at Taunton’s Jack Tripp Field.

The Case Cardinals continued their quest for a third straight state title appearance by putting up five runs in the fourth and sixth innings en route to a 14-0 Division 3 South semifinal softball victory over Diman on Tuesday at Taunton’s Jack Tripp Field.

The Cards banged out 15 hits and rode the right arm of sophomore pitcher Leslie Denis to earn a berth in the South finals. Case will face Bristol-Plymouth on Friday at 5 p.m. back at Tripp Field.

B-P scored six runs in the seventh inning against top-seeded Avon to tie the game at 7-7 and defeated the Panthers 9-8 in nine innings Tuesday.

The second-seeded Cardinals got three hits from Danielle Robillard, while Denis limited the Bengals to three hits while striking out five.

“Everything was working for (Denis) from the get-go,” said Case coach Don DiBiaso. “She was in a groove from the start.”

Case took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the first when Kelsey Pacheco singled home Allyson Santerre, who opened the game by reaching on an error.

After Denis and Diman’s Hailey Levesque shut down each other’s offense in the second, Santerre and Robillard highlighted a three-run third with back-to-back RBI doubles to help extend the Case lead to 4-0.

The Cards opened the fourth with four straight hits and used run-scoring singles by Allyson DiCesare, Robillard and Sara Carvalho to put up five runs in the frame and put the game out of reach with a 9-0 lead.

“Everything seems to be going well right now,” DiBiaso said. “Defense, pitching and catching.”

“Everyone of those kids over there grew up playing softball in Swansea,” said Diman coach Cathie Noversa. “It’s hard to face a team that’s so close-knit. That’s a very good team over there.”

After a scoreless fifth, Case struck for five more in the sixth, sending 10 to the plate and getting two of those runs on a Carvalho double. The Cards had five more hits in the inning.

Denis walked two batters in her route-going effort.

“We haven’t seen this type of pitching all year,” said Noversa, whose team came in as the sixth seed with a 16-6 mark.

“We have five seniors and I expected us to do well this year. Last year, we lost in the first round. I saw improvement this year and we took it a step further.”

Marissa Matias, Alexis Vadeboncoeur and Levesque all had a hit for Diman.

Santerre, Carvalho, Jenna Reposa, DiCesare and Shawna Marchand all had two hits for Case.